Hosiery fabric



Aug. 17, 1937. A. F. VERBEEK HOS IERY FABRIC Filed Dec. 51, 1935 INVENTOR. Olmold Friedrich V'erbeeh ATTORNEY.

trimmed Au 17, 193':

UNITED. STATES PATENT orr cs many, assignor to Kalio Inc., New a corporation of New York York, N. Y.,

Application December 31, 1935, Serial Nit-56,889 1 Claim. (Cl. 66 173)- This invention relates to a new and useful improvement in hosiery fabric.

The use of elastic threads looped or woven into knitted hosiery fabric to act as a garter is well known. However, such elastic threads have heretofore been positioned either on the outside or inside of the welt so-that they have been exposed to abrasion from without or to wear from within as the result of contact with the leg. v

The object of this invention is to provide an elastic garter integral with the fabric of the welt which is protected from abrasion or wear both from the outside or inside and which also will permit of a neat and sharp welt turn which may be picoted if desired.

The fabric of this invention is disclosed in thedrawing, of which Figure 1 illustrates diagrammatically a welt having an elastic garter top in both the outside and inside layers of fabric;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged cross-section of the fabric of Fig. l; Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of a fragment of fabric showing a preferred manner of inserting the elastic thread. I

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 a garter section I is formed in the welt 2 by interweaving an elastic thread 4 with the loops of each course or courses relatively close together, depending upon the extent of the garter section and the tension desired, in such a way that it is exposed only on the inside of the turned welt, the outer and inner faces of the welt being composed only of fabric.

The elastic thread 4 may 'beinserted in this manner by the method disclosed and described in my copending application No. 3,892 filed January 29, 1935. When this method is followed the fabric shown in Fig. 3 will result. It will be noted from Fig. 3 and also from Fig. 2 that the elastic thread 4 passes through the sinker loops 5 and over the connecting needle loops 6 so that it appears only upon the back i of the fabric, the silk or other yarn only showing upon the face 8 of the fabric with the result that when the welt is turned the elastic threads are protected on both sides of the welt by the'fabric loops. Thus the elastic threads are concealed and also protected from wear and abrasion. Preferably, as

already generally stated the elastic section '01 sections is discontinued for a short distance at the turn of the welt. This area shown at 9 in Figs. 1 and 2 in the drawing being limited to plain fabric. A neat thin top is thus assured which may be picoted if desired as shown at M.

Because of the division of the elastic sections between the two layers of the welt, it will be evident that the tension of each need. be only approximately one-half that which would be required were a single elastic section in one layer employed, and that much lighter elastic may be used. Since such lighter elastic is more flexible, comfort is assured without sacrificing adequate support, and there is less danger of breaking the elastic threads through extending them beyond the limit of their elasticity.

A further valuable feature of this invention is found in the termination of the courses of elastic thread a short distance inside of the extreme edges of the fabric as shown at ii and I! so that the elastic threads will not interfere with or be damaged by the seaming operation.

Unlike fabrics in which elastic threads are inserted as part of the loop structure of the fabric itself, breakage of the elastic thread will in no way impair the continuity of the loop structure of the fabric if the above method is adopted so that'there is no possibility of runs being caused by the elastic thread. In fact the clinging nature of the elastic thread combined with the manner in which it is interwoven substantially prevents the generation of runs in the garter area.

However, the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2 in which a garter section is incorporated in both the inside and outside layers of the welt I so that one is superposed upon the other is preferred for the very important practical reason that one garter section supplements the other so that less tension is required for each elastic thread, making it-possible to use smaller elastic threads.

This produces a garter top the tension of which will increase less rapidly as it is stretched than one made of heavier elastic threads and will thus insure against Y excessive binding. Also greater durability is thus secured since the strain is distributed among'a larger number of elastic' garter. said elastic thread being so associated with the knitted courses that it passes through the sinker loops of one course and behind the needle loops interlinked therewith of the adjacent course so that it is exposed upon one side only of the fabric, the folding of said welt fabric being such that the side upon which the elastic thread is exposed forms the inner surfaces of the welt so that the elastic threads are protected from abrasion and substantially concealed.

ARNOLD FRIERICH 

